eSIM without Google Play Services

Android exposes eSIM management through two interfaces. Apps and carriers call EuiccManager, in the android.telephony.euicc package. Whoever implements the actual profile handling extends EuiccService and declares it in a manifest. The system then looks for installed apps holding the WRITE_EMBEDDED_SUBSCRIPTIONS permission that declare a service for the android.service.euicc.EuiccService action, and picks the one with the highest declared priority. If no app answers that description, there is nothing to pick, and the eSIM screens either do not appear or do nothing when tapped.

AOSP itself does not ship a general purpose LPA. Device manufacturers are expected to implement their own and hook it up to the Android eUICC APIs, and Google's documentation says so plainly. That single design decision is the root of every de-Googled eSIM problem you will read about. The chip is standard, the QR code is standard, the SM-DP+ server is standard, and the only variable is whether somebody put an LPA in the build you are running.

Three things, and it is worth separating them. First, the LPA itself: on Pixel hardware this is proprietary Google functionality, and the GrapheneOS documentation states directly that in order to manage and add eSIMs, proprietary Google functionality is needed. Second, carrier apps: some operators do not hand out a QR code at all and instead expect you to install their app from Play and let it provision the line for you. That is a carrier policy, not a technical requirement of eSIM, and it is a real dead end on a phone with no store. Third, push notifications and various carrier services that ride on Play, which affect apps you use on the line rather than the line itself.

What is worth knowing is how narrow the first item is. Per the GrapheneOS documentation, eSIM management on that system has no dependency on Google Play and never shares data with Play even when Play is installed. So proprietary is not the same as connected. A phone with no Play Services at all can still carry an LPA and download profiles normally, and many do. If your operator hands you a plain activation code rather than an app, the whole transaction is your phone talking to a provisioning server, and no Google service is involved on either end unless your carrier chose to use one.

microG is the usual answer to missing Play Services, and it is a good one for what it covers: it reimplements the Play services that applications call, so that apps expecting Google's libraries keep running. It does not provide an LPA. There is an open request in the microG issue tracker asking for exactly that, an LPA backend inside microG, and the person filing it described it as a huge undertaking and doubted it would happen. At time of writing that request is still open with no implementation.

The practical consequence is that installing microG will not make eSIM download appear on a build that lacks it, and removing microG will not take eSIM away from a build that has it. These are unrelated subsystems that people routinely confuse because both live under the heading of Google replacement. If your eSIM installer is missing, microG is not the lever. An LPA built into the system image is.

Everything ordinary. Once a profile is written to the eUICC, the line is handled by the modem and the Android telephony stack, neither of which cares what else is or is not installed. Incoming SMS arrives, calls ring, and the line registers on the network exactly as a physical SIM would. Deleting Play Services later does not remove an installed profile.

That is the shape of our own product. The UK +44 number is a real carrier mobile line delivered as a standard GSMA activation code, receiving unlimited incoming SMS and calls worldwide over roaming, with no mobile data of any kind. It is $25 once, first six months included, then $15 every six months, and nothing renews on its own because we store no card. Travel data is a separate product from $1.99 across 190+ countries with no phone number attached. Payment is crypto only, twelve methods, with no KYC, no account and no email address, and an 8-character lookup code in the AB12-CDEF format is how you find your order again. What we cannot do is put an LPA on your phone, which is why the check below comes before the purchase.